INVENTION & TECH nology used to have a column called “They’re Still There,” about antiquated industrial equipment that was still in use. Its author came to be known as the Grim Reaper because all too often, the subject of a column was shut down soon after publication. Sometimes, however, technology has the last laugh. “They’re Still There” is long gone, but two of its subjects that expired shortly after their write-ups have turned out to be surprisingly lively after all.

In 1987 we wrote about the Hulett ore unloaders of Cleveland, Ohio. Nothing symbolized Big Steel better than these enormous machines, weighing 1,500 tons apiece, which scooped up iron ore from Lake Erie boats in 17-ton bites and dumped it into rail cars. The Cleveland Huletts were taken out of service in 1992, and after a long and unsuccessful effort to preserve them, they were scrapped in 2002. Yet these behemoths have not entirely vanished from America’s industrial landscape. A pair of Huletts on the Chicago waterfront, the last two in America, which had been taken out of action and faced an uncertain future, now seem to be safe —for the time being, at least.

Those Huletts were part of a coke plant owned by LTV Steel that shut down in 2001 and was acquired the following year by Calumet Transfer Co. That firm considered selling the plant, but with the recent upswing in coke prices, it now plans to return it to operation—including the Huletts. These plans are good news for supporters of Chicago’s Steel Heritage Project, a nonprofit group that is raising funds to acquire the former Acme Steel Co. coke works, adjacent to the old LTV plant.

If it does acquire the Acme plant, CSHP plans to open a steel-industry museum, with equipment from the coke plant and other closed installations in the Chicago area. The Acme plant was the site of the Memorial Day Massacre of 1937, in which Chicago policemen killed 10 striking steelworkers, and CSHP’s plans to interpret this event have drawn financial support from the United Steelworkers of America. The group already has more than $60,000 of the $250,000 purchase price and is optimistic about raising the balance in the next two years (for an update on the project, or to make a contribution, see www.chicagosteel.org ). The Hulett unloaders will not be part of the museum, but the site contains an elevated vantage point from which visitors will be able to see them—in action, it is fervently hoped.

Meanwhile, in Sutler Creek, California, the Knight Foundry—which we profiled in 1992, four years before it shut its doors- hopes to be back in business later this year. The foundry was established in 1873 to serve California’s mining industry, and when Carl Borgh, a former aerospace engineer, bought it in 1970, it still had most of its original water-powered equipment. Borgh kept the company going for 26 years, casting equipment for construction, mining, and agriculture, but economic forces eventually forced it to close. He died two years later.

In 2000 Richard and Melissa Lyman, a pair of local preservationists, bought the foundry from Borgh’s estate. A nonprofit group called Knight Foundry Corp. was formed to survey the site, make restoration plans, and raise funds to put it back in operation. By last fall the effort had advanced far enough for Knight Foundry to accept a $105,000 contract to produce 25 ornamental cast-iron lampposts for the city of San Leandro.

“Over the last ten years,” says Andy Fahrenwald, the foundry’s project director, “the American cast-iron industry has become significantly automated, one of the last basic industries to do so because it is so essentially craft-intensive.” This shift has created a niche for smallscale operations that can still perform custom work for the booming historicpreservation industry. As it produces high-quality, finely detailed work in small lots, the Knight Foundry will keep alive the nineteenth-century skills and practices that are just as much a part of its historic importance as the machinery and tools it contains.

Once the foundry becomes fully operational, it should at least break even on its casting business, tours, and educational programs. But the money to start production, acquire the foundry, restore it fully, and preserve it for future generations will require millions of dollars in donations, both individual and institutional. Information about the project and how to make a contribution can be found at www.knightfoundry.org .